Mar 19 1974
From The Space Library
Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science Vincent L. Johnson testified during FY 1975 NASA authorization hearings before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics' Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications that the Thor-Delta launch vehicle improvement program begun in 1971 was nearing completion. The most modern Thor-Delta configuration, the 2914, was expected to fly for the first time during the April launch of Westar-A. Final decision for the launch was pending recommendation of the Failure Review Board set up at Goddard Space Flight Center to investigate the 2nd-stage failure of a Thor-Delta during the 18 Jan. Skynet IIA launch.
NASA believed that, with the 2914 Delta, the present family of vehicles could launch any mission, but RCA Corp. had determined that a 30% to 35% increase in the 2914 Thor-Delta capability would permit a 24-channel, rather than the usual 12-channel, satellite to be launched into synchronous orbit. RCA and McDonnell Douglas Corp. had agreed to share the cost of the uprating and McDonnell Douglas would reimburse NASA for technical direction. NASA had not agreed to make the new 3914 Thor-Delta a part of its launch family but probably would do so following successful proof flight. The first flight was scheduled for 1975. (Transcript)
Instrumented aircraft overflights of Volusia County, Fla., to determine if soils could be classified by remote-sensing techniques were begun by Kennedy Space Center in cooperation with the Dept. of Agriculture. USDA was developing soil classification maps of Florida by traditional field sampling and laboratory analysis. The overflights, by KSC's twin Beechcraft and a C-46 under contract to Johnson Space Center, would use multispectral scanning to attempt to speed the procedure, which would otherwise take 40 yrs. (AP, LA Her-Exam, 19 March 74)
Soviet scientists had offered a theory explaining why Comet Kohoutek had not been as bright as expected, an East Berlin newspaper was quoted as saying. Leningrad physicists had found in a laboratory test that Kohoutek was surrounded by a high-density fluid of cosmic particles; this "armor" had not burst and released light, as expected, when the sun had heated and expanded the comet's nucleus. (AP, LA Her-Exam, 19 March 74)
19-20 March: NASA launched a record series of 79 sounding rockets from eight sites as part of a program to determine daily temperature and wind variations in the upper atmosphere during the vernal equinox. The launches were made over a 24-hr period from North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. Single-stage Loki and Super Loki rockets carried meteorological instruments to about 70 km, where the payloads were ejected and returned to the earth on parachutes, telemetering data to ground. receiving stations. (NASA Release 74-71)
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